Postcards from Hobbiton

Fans of The Lord of the Rings: unite! Non-fans who just like film sets and may or may not have Elvish tattoos anyway: unite! Oh, just me? Weird. Today we’re tumbling down the wildly intriguing rabbit hole and landing in some Hobbit Holes! In 1998, when Peter Jackson was scouting for the perfect location to…

Did Jayne Mansfield Fake her Own Shipwreck?

One of Hollywood’s favourite sex symbols of the 20th century, Jayne Mansfield was as notorious for her publicity stunts as she was for her provocative presence on-screen. But in 1962, things got a little more dramatic when the actress was reported lost at sea, feared drowned after her boat capsized in the Bahamas. The ordeal quickly reached…

Take a Peek Inside the Original Grand Budapest Hotel

On the busy streets of the Grand Boulevard, the Corinthia Hotel blends in with the decadent architecture of downtown Budapest. Located amidst the bistros and elegant apartment blocks punctuated by traffic and the yellow tram that never sleeps, it’s easy to miss out of the beauty of this old hotel. But if you take a…

Marilyn Monroe’s Forgotten Hollywood Sorority

If you had knocked on the door of room 334 at the Hollywood Studio Club on Lexington Avenue in 1948, a 24 year-old struggling actress going by the name of Marilyn Monroe would have answered with eyes full of hope. Marilyn was one of over 10,000 girls who were housed at the Hollywood Studio Club during its sixty year history, providing film studios…

Backstage Fakery at Universal City in 1963

Universal Pictures was founded by a German immigrant, Carl Laemmle, who opened his first cinema in Chicago in 1906. In the early days, other studio chiefs laughed at Carl’s haphazard Universal City and nicknamed it “Laemmle’s Folly”. But the ambitious film pioneer would become responsible for creating the “star system”, rather than just using anonymous actors in films, and…

Take a Peek Inside this Fantastic French Miniature Museum

Miniature museums are often packaged as toy museums or assumed to be a very twee exhibit for doll house enthusiasts, but today I virtually stumbled upon an incredible museum located in the French city of Lyon, where the world of miniatures becomes a whole new dimension… Founded by Dan Ohlmann (pictured above playing giant), a renowned…

Date Night in Paris: 5 Romantic Cinemas

When in Paris, you might as well do things the right way; drink at the bistros of the belle époque, buy your vegetables fresh at the marché; bargain your way through the brocantes; and when it comes to going to the cinéma, why not watch your favorite movie stars on the big screens of the…

Documenting Africa’s Old Cinemas

Sneaking around old art deco cinemas is something we like to do quite often on this site as you know, but today I came across something a little further afield. Starting in Angloa, Germany’s cultural Goethe-Institut is putting together a fascinating website dedicated entirely to documenting the architecture of Africa’s old cinemas; photographing them, mapping them and…

For Sale! The Last Cinema Bus

Image via Jane Sanders Up in that impressive glass dome is where the projectionist would have originally sat in the late 1960s, when a fleet of seven of these custom mobile cinema units toured Britain, promoting modern production techniques to the industry. Britain’s then Minister of Technology, Tony Ben commissioned the customised Bedford SB buses to…

How he Made it: A Short History of Wes Anderson’s Career

Last week, the internet was buzzing with Wes Anderson fever as the trailer was released for his newest contribution to cinema, The Grand Budapest Hotel. Sensing that us Wes Anderson-crazed fans might not be able to hold out until the film’s release date in March 2014, the kind folks behind the Wes Anderson Collection book…